Greif
by Emme2589
Summary: How will Rio sleep after a dream about AUTO?


_It was kind of surreal. The way the clouds moved, and the green glow that surrounded them from EVE #3 "Rio"'s bright eyes. Each shape seemed so well defined, like it was pouring from a fog machine, like it was created for the sole purpose of being artistic. It was such a pleasant experience, Rio found herself wanting to stay here forever. It had been a long time since she was this content._

 _And then, from the shadows of the green-lit clouds, a red light shone through the steamy fog._

 _ **"This is what it feels like after you die."**_

Rio awoke with a start, growling in frustration at the darkness of the room. It wasn't morning yet. That was the tamest dream she'd had in a long time, but of course, it was about Autopilot. It was always about Autopilot.

AUTO.

Ever since he died at the hands of Shannon Forthright, Rio had been sleeping less and less. Previously, even when her insomnia kept her up at night, the thought of seeing Autopilot again was enough to make her feel safe, but night after night of constant dreams of him being panicked or tortured or blown to pieces, it was just...

Rio slammed her forehead against the windowsill. When would these feelings go away!? They kept haunting her day and night! For the past couple of months, she'd been so much more irritable than she'd ever been, she was always so angry! She could never stay calm, or calm down. Would it ever go away? Or leave her alone? Let her just sleep long enough for the sun to come up?

She lifted two fingers to her ear, flicking through all the comm links she had stored. She hesitated over Leah. Her sister Leah always seemed to be awake when she needed her. She was so kind and understanding, she had an expansive database on mental illness, and she'd always been able to talk Rio down from her anger.

But, Leah needed sleep too. It wasn't fair to bother her all the time.

Without thinking too hard about it, Rio went one name down and let it ring.

"Hm?" EVE was jostled from her sleep when the call came through. She was mildly annoyed, until she saw the name; Rio. She kept her voice hushed so as not to wake WALL-E, "Rio? What's wrong?"

"I..." Rio let her eyes glitch on her black screen, "I can't sleep..."

EVE frowned, "Is that it?"

Rio let her head rest on the sill again, the floor below her looking dark in the small area, "No..."

"It's Auto again, huh?"

Rio felt herself shaking, but she wouldn't allow herself to be sad, "Yes! It's always Autopilot! It's always him! Why can't he just move on! Why does he have to haunt me in my dreams!?"

"Rio." EVE whispered, "It's okay."

"No it's not!" Rio wailed, still forcing anger, "None of you guys lost your partners! It was only me! Why couldn't I have saved him before Ruby blew him up!?"

"I mean it's okay to cry." EVE corrected gently, "I can tell, Rio. You never want to be sad, so you force anger on yourself. That's not healthy, just let yourself cry."

"No!" Rio was lucky she lived alone, or she would be waking people up (was that lucky at all though?), "I won't cry! I hate crying! It makes me feel so weak! Help me, Eve!"

"Rio." EVE spoke very softly, so that Rio would have to be quiet to hear, "You're going to go into a panic. Okay? Hush..."

Rio's eyes burned as she finally began to cry, "It's not fair... _it's not fair!"_

"Shhh..." EVE softly shushed into the call, "It's okay...let it all out..."

Rio blubbered nonsense as both her green eyes flickered violently across her face. Her face was hot as she sobbed in the otherwise silent room, but her hands were extremely cold. As her energy waned, she found a sense of calm overtaking her. Just a little bit, slowly, until she felt kind of drowsy...almost...content...

Like in the dream...

"Huh?" Rio lifted her head, seeing the moon and the stars outside as the clouds moved out of the way, "I...I feel..."

EVE smiled, "Better?"

Rio shook her head, "I don't understand...why do I...?"

She trailed off.

"Can you sleep now?"

"Hm?" Rio blinked, realizing how heavy her digital eyelids were, "Oh wow...I feel so much better now..."

"It's because of how your brain works." EVE explained, "Crying takes a lot of energy, and some of the "happy" chemical is released while you cry. Don't do this again, okay? Crying doesn't make you weak. This is just a result of being sentient. It makes you...almost human."

"Haha..." Rio rubbed her sore eyes on her visor, "Thank you...for staying calm...when I couldn't..."

"No problem." EVE replied warmly, "Can you sleep now?"

Rio sighed, "I don't want to...what if I dream about Autopilot again?"

EVE thought about that. She did have one trick she used when she was afraid of having a nightmare - one that made a slight temporary modification to her long-term memory program - but would it work for her sister? Would Rio's mind accept the mod?

"Okay, listen up." EVE said, "I want you to go through your program. Find the string of code labelled as _'MEM_AFFECT/DREAM TRUE'._ Change the true to false."

"Huh?" Rio found the code, but hesitated, "Why? What does it do?"

"It's a code that refers to the intensity of dreams. It supports your ability to remember your dreams, and it acts as a sort of 'immersion' code to better mimic the base control humans have in their dreams." EVE explained, authority in her gentle voice, "If you turn it off, your dreams will be a lot less dependent on your current state of mind."

"Oh my god..." Rio blinked as she saved the search for the line of code, "Eve, thank you..."

"Of course. You can always turn it back on if you miss dreaming normally."

Rio didn't think she could stay awake any longer, so she made sure her comm could end before she drifted off, "I'll see you later, Eve...th-thank you so much..."

EVE was kicked from the call, and she giggled softly. She was confident that Rio would sleep peacefully from here.

 _Rio once again found herself in that green-tinted fog, but it was way more blurry, unfocused, like she was looking through a telescope at a faraway scene. It felt staged, imaginary, like she was in the middle of a fictional book._

 _She once again found that panicked red light, AUTO's eye, but this time, she didn't panic. She felt herself smiling as he hovered closer. She knew he wasn't real this time, but what if she used this for a therapeutic purpose? A way to heal from her constant grief?_

 _"Hey, Autopilot..." Rio let her slim fingers rest on his face, next to the burning red camera lens, "It's been awhile, huh?"_

 _The dream AUTO didn't respond, but he did relax slightly._

 _"Let's talk." Rio let her thumb graze the edge of his spokes, "How have you been?"_


End file.
